City of the Dead
by Elizabeth Maxwell
Summary: A woman in the Big Easy has an encounter with the Visitors.


City of the Dead  
  
The familiar blues singer played the same old Louis Armstrong  
tune. "The moonlight on the bayou... a creole tune... that fills the  
air I dream... about magnolias in bloom... and I'm wishin' I was  
there... Do you know what it means to miss New Orleans...."  
  
Who would ever miss New Orleans? The humidity, the fog, the  
hot summers, non-existent winters... not to mention the state bird.  
No, not the mockingbird...  
  
"No, I don't," Ann-Marie Fabray muttered aloud, "but I wish I  
did." She had no idea she had spoken out loud, nor did anyone look  
at her twice. This was New Orleans, after all, the place where  
anything goes.  
  
"Hey, Ann-Marie!" a voice called. "Late you are!"  
  
"I'm sorry, Zelda. I didn't sleep last night."  
  
"Hon, a grip you have to get. It's been months now, you  
know."  
  
Ann-Marie sighed, "You're right, Zelda, but then again,  
you're always right."  
  
"Hush up, you. Now sit and I go open the shop."  
  
"Okay, Zelda. I'll see you later."  
  
Zelda had already hurried off, though, and waved back at Ann-  
Marie as she cut threw the crowd in Jackson Square. Ann-Marie shook  
her head and sat down in the chair, eagerly awaiting her next  
customer; she didn't have to wait long.  
  
A teenage girl tentatively approached the table. "Is this  
for real?"  
  
"Darlin', it's as real as you and me."  
  
"Well... I guess it can't hurt me to try it just once... How  
much?"  
  
"For you, ten dollars."  
  
The girl dug into her pocket for a ten-dollar bill and handed  
it over to Ann-Marie. "Sit down, darlin', and relax."  
  
A nervous laugh was the only reply.  
  
"Now give me your hand."  
  
The girl did as instructed, and Ann-Marie carefully studied  
her hand. The sign said "palm-reader" but Ann-Marie was no palm-  
reader. That was Zelda.  
  
"What do you see?"  
  
"Silence, darlin'. I must be able to work."  
  
"Sorry."  
  
A rocky coastline, an attic window, a girl smiling and  
constructing all sorts of things. After a few moments, Ann-Marie  
replied, "You had a happy childhood, but not here..."  
  
"Maine... I was born in Maine."  
  
"You want to be an architect--" Blood, terror...  
  
The girl smiled and nodded.  
  
--but you will never be an architect..."  
  
An image entered Ann-Marie's mind, a strange image. "I see  
you with a rifle, strong, courageous..." Quite courageous as those  
to her left and right were shot down, but the girl did not falter.  
She would fight to her last breath against the foe...  
  
"What?! You're a quack. This isn't even real!" The girl  
stood up quickly and walked away.  
  
Ann-Marie shrugged. She was no palm-reader, but she was  
clairvoyant. She could see the past, the present, and the future...  
  
***************************  
  
Scared. So scared. Run. Run. Faster. Faster.  
  
Ann-Marie ran. She was panting and feared for her life, but  
she did not know where to go. "Nobody's left. They're all gone."  
  
She sobbed. "Zelda! Zelda!"  
  
Zelda had been taken, she remembered.  
  
"Conrad?! Conrad!"  
  
He had laughed at her. "Sis, stop this. You're going  
crazy." He was one of them now.  
  
Them...  
  
...Ann-Marie woke up, sweating, breathing hard, and wondering  
what she had eaten before bed to give her horrible  
nightmares. "Geez!"  
  
A glance at the clock told her she was late yet  
again. "Shit! Zelda's gonna kill me!"  
  
Once she was dressed, Ann-Marie made her way to the east end  
of Bourbon Street. It was still early, but a few stragglers from the  
previous night were lying in the street. She laughed, for Bourbon  
Street was never deserted, be it morning, noon, or night. Zelda was  
watching for her, arms crossed.  
  
"Ann-Marie, what to do with you?"  
  
"Gosh, Zelda, I'm so sorry."  
  
"What be going on with you?"  
  
"I don't know, Zelda..."  
  
"Well, I got to run. Very late. You be okay here?"  
  
"Yes, I can handle things here."  
  
Zelda exited the shop to run the booth in Jackson Square,  
leaving Ann-Marie alone. She passed the time watching some  
television in the back. Then, the bell sounded the arrival of a  
customer.  
  
"Hi there. How are you?"  
  
"Hello," a well-dressed woman returned, "I'm interested in  
perhaps hiring your shop for a party... I wanted to test it out for  
myself first..."  
  
Ann-Marie wanted to roll her eyes. "Of course. Come in  
please. What did you have in mind?"  
  
"Hmmm... I think having our tea leaves read would be fun for  
the girls in my bridge club. Can I have mine read, just to see what  
it's like?"  
  
"Yes, please have a seat, and I'll prepare your tea."  
  
The woman sat down as Ann-Marie boiled water and readied the  
tea service. She was flipping through a book on voodoo when Ann-  
Marie entered.  
  
"Please take your time, and when you're done, we'll begin."  
Ann-Marie obtained information from the woman about the details of  
her get-together. Then, the woman finished.  
  
"Here you go."  
  
A command obeyed. A wish granted. A name that meant respect  
in the community. "Well, for starters, you're a powerful woman, but  
you will become even more powerful soon... Mrs. Richards." Indeed,  
and so corrupted.  
  
At this, the woman gasped. "Tell me more."  
  
"Your dreams will be fulfilled as you meet new people who are  
not from here. They are very different, but you have common goals."  
  
"Who are they? Where do they come from?"  
  
Words from a poster, just the top. "They are your friends,  
Mrs. Richards, from far away, but they will bring you happiness...  
and... pain..."  
  
"What did you say? What do you mean--pain?"  
  
Shit. "I'm sorry, Mrs. Richards, you misunderstood... I said  
gain."  
  
The woman laughed, relieved. "Oh, my hearing's not what it  
used to be. Well, I'm sold. Please tell the owner I'll contact her  
tomorrow."  
  
"Wonderful, Mrs. Richards."  
  
*************************************  
  
"Where am I?"  
  
She was hiding.  
  
"From what?"  
  
Not what, her brain answered, but from whom...  
  
A noise made her whimper. Oh, the things she had just  
witnessed... She had never seen anything like it ever. She was so  
cold.  
  
"This is a dream... It really is..." She began laughing  
hysterically. "I'll wake up soon."  
  
She rounded a corner and saw a group of people lined up,  
scared to death. Their hands were on top of their heads, awaiting  
orders... She tried to see who gave the orders, but it was too  
dark...  
  
A man tried to run... toward her. "No, they'll find me...  
No."  
  
Closer. Closer. Closer.  
  
A sound... then his eyes widened, arms flailing, body  
falling. Then, she saw them...  
  
"Oh, God, no!"  
  
But it was only a nightmare...thank God.  
***********************************  
  
Several days later, she walked through the French Quarter to  
the shop. As she walked, she saw people hurrying to and fro,  
whispering, some seemed afraid, others excited.  
  
"Girl, get you in here!"  
  
"Zelda, what's the matter?"  
  
"Spaceships on way... one coming here... or either it be  
elaborate joke."  
  
"What?! Zelda, you're kidding me, except I'm not laughing."  
  
"I no kid you about this..."  
  
"Which way is it coming?"  
  
"They say one be coming from the Gulf, coming here."  
  
"Zelda, I don't believe you."  
  
"Child, look at the TV. That lie?"  
  
"Zelda, TV is not real."  
  
"Go to the river then, watch the spaceship arrive, child,  
then you know."  
  
*****************************  
  
Ann-Marie hurried to the levee overlooking the Mississippi  
River just beside Jackson Square. As she passed the statue of Andrew  
Jackson from the Battle of New Orleans, she wondered what Old Hickory  
would have thought of this.  
  
Before she even got to the river, she felt it. A vibration.  
Deep and low. Then, she heard a hush, then a hum. Her teeth  
chattered. Gasps went up as people all around her looked up at the  
sky.  
  
"Shit!"  
  
"What the?!"  
  
"Le Bon Dieu!"  
  
"No way!"  
  
"Oh my God!"  
  
"Repent! Repent! It's not too late!"  
  
"The end of the world is upon us..."  
  
It was enormous and literally filled the sky. The spaceship  
seemed to envelope everything in its path.  
  
"That damn thing's at least three miles across... at least!"  
  
"No shit!"  
  
"Cool!"  
  
"What do they want?"  
  
"Do you really want to know?"  
  
A man clutched his heart and fell to the cement. Someone  
screamed. Another ran to call an ambulance.  
  
The people stared above, into the sky that was obscured by  
this unidentified flying object. Some were crying, others shocked.  
Strangers hugged each other. Ann-Marie stood alone.  
  
*******************************  
  
Hours later, she still had not made her way back home.  
Citizens of New Orleans, Louisiana, like people in cities all over  
the world, walked around in a daze. Ann-Marie didn't know if the  
flying saucer was a government conspiracy, a hoax, a message from  
God, or what. Nobody else did either. She was beginning to feel  
sorry for all the tourists who wanted nothing more than to get home  
to their families; that was difficult right now, however.  
  
Ann-Marie was surprised to see a long line as she turned a  
corner. 'What's going on now?' she wondered. A closer look told her  
the throng sought entrance into a Baptist church, currently filled to  
capacity, as both believers and non-believers were frightened out of  
their wits and wanted answers.  
  
"Answers," she muttered to herself. "Do these people really  
want answers? Do any of us?"  
  
As she turned onto her street, another shock struck Ann-  
Marie. An ambulance was parked outside her apartment building, and  
onlookers whispered amongst themselves, eager for gossip and for a  
look inside. "What's going on?" she asked an elderly man whom she  
did not recognize.  
  
"A woman just killed herself. Did it in the bathtub with a  
razor blade. Left the water running, and it leaked into the  
apartment below." He shook his head, "Sad day..." Pausing to gaze  
at the huge craft overhead, he replied, "Sad day..."  
  
Indeed, thousands of people saw suicide as the only way to  
calm their fears this day. Funeral homes were going to be busy for a  
long time to come.  
  
********************************************************  
  
"Oh my God, the world done gone crazy, girl," Zelda confirmed  
as the two watched a small craft on television descend from the  
larger saucer to the top of the United Nations Building in New York  
City.  
  
Ann-Marie shivered and grabbed Zelda's hand. Her eyes  
widened, but not because of what she saw on the screen.  
  
"Zelda, I gotta go...I just remembered something..."  
  
"Girl, you not gonna watch this?! You okay?"  
  
"I'm fine. I'm sorry, Zelda. I can't handle this." Ann-  
Marie ran out the door and into the cool New Orleans night.  
  
"Geez, the world's ending, but people still party on Bourbon  
Street." She made her way through the crowd, hurrying along, wanting  
to escape--to no avail.  
  
The flash she experienced holding Zelda's hand had been too  
much.  
  
A raid in the middle of the night. Zelda sleeping then  
confused. Scared but compliant. Ann-Marie saw the whole thing  
through Zelda's eyes just in a few moments. Hundreds of people  
around Zelda, all without a clue as to what was happening. A voice,  
a strange echoing voice, assuring them that everything was fine.  
Zelda walking, following orders, then oblivion...  
  
"Hey, lady, show me your tits!" a drunken man yelled from the  
sidewalk.  
  
She ignored him but heard his companion rebuke him, "You  
idiot! That's Mardi Gras and you gotta have beads or it's no show,  
dude!"  
  
Ann-Marie would have laughed if the situation were  
different. "At least this is still New Orleans..."  
  
A television in one of the strip clubs caught her eye,  
though. A man...He was wearing the uniform, the red uniform...from  
her vision.  
  
"Oh no," she whispered, "it can't be..."  
  
But it was. These "Visitors," unwelcome guests, would lie,  
kill, and commit acts so vile Hitler would cringe. Ann-Marie  
shivered. She had seen them in her visions...  
  
********************************************************  
  
Weeks after "first contact" with the Visitors, humans all  
around the world were embracing alien friends. Children were awed by  
these creatures from a distant realm. As proof, Ann-Marie only  
needed to look around.  
  
"Unbelievable." Kids dressed in red Visitor uniforms lined  
the streets. There was more, though. Adults also wore Visitor  
uniforms, many looked authentic with various black bars indicating  
rank.  
  
"First it was the toys of the Supreme Commander and Diana,  
then squad vehicles, then toy motherships, and now Halloween  
costumes..." Ann-Marie shook her head.  
  
She was on her way home from work, in a hurry. The French  
Quarter got crazier than usual on Halloween, and that was saying a  
lot.  
  
Suddenly, a tall man in a Visitor uniform bumped into her.  
The costume was so authentic that it was only when he spoke that Ann-  
Marie knew he was simply another pseudo Visitor. He reached out a  
hand to steady her, and that touch was all she needed.  
  
Ann-Marie shut her eyes. How could she tell him that he in  
for the shock of his life this All Hallow's Eve? How could she warn  
him not to venture onto Canal Street after midnight? How could she  
warn him not to go near the river? Revelers thought it fun or neat  
to wear these uniforms, but what if...? Tonight, this man, so  
apologetic for running into her, would LIVE the "what if" but he  
would not live to tell about it. In those moments, she saw through  
his eyes, and the vision horrified her.  
  
"Don't!" she cried.  
  
"Look, lady, I didn't mean it."  
  
"No," Ann-Marie began, "that's not--"  
  
"I'm out of here, you--" he muttered as he turned and walked  
the other way.  
  
"To your death," she whispered.  
  
Instead of going home, she decided to make her way to her  
brother's apartment in the Garden District. A Freshman but only  
seventeen, Conrad attended Tulane University; he was the only family  
Ann-Marie had left. Shock awaited her as she walked across campus. A  
Visitor shuttle dwarfed the quad, although she dismissed it, intent  
on talking to Conrad.  
  
She found him in the lobby, and he was not alone. As she  
turned a corner, she heard his voice before she ever saw him, but she  
KNEW...  
  
"Now, Conrad," a reverberated voice echoed, "you're one of us-  
-a Visitor Youth. We'll depend on you to recruit teens as a sort of  
goodwill mission. You'll be very important to us, Conrad, like  
family..."  
  
"Thanks. Family is everything."  
  
"Yes."  
  
Ann-Marie finally looked to see the two shaking hands, Conrad  
clad in a brown uniform that was supposed to mimic the red coverall.  
It was nothing but a mockery, however. The Visitor walked away, and  
Ann-Marie approached.  
  
"What the hell are you thinking?!"  
  
"Nice to see you, too, sis. Geez! What's wrong with you?"  
  
"What's wrong with me?! What's wrong with me?!" she  
shouted. "For starters, I don't want you to have anything to do with  
them, do you understand?"  
  
Conrad looked into her eyes, and she turned cold. "You're  
not my mother. I don't have to take orders from you."  
  
"So you're going to take them from those damn aliens?!"  
  
"Don't call them that...They're my friends."  
  
"Conrad, please," she begged, "please listen to me...They are  
not who you think they are. Don't get any closer to them. Tell them  
you changed your mind."  
  
"But why? I like them. I want to be a part of the Visitor  
Youth Corps."  
  
"Conrad, they are not your friends. They want to hurt us,  
not help us."  
  
He shook his head. "Sis, you're scaring me. What have you  
and Zelda been doing? You're crazy."  
  
"I saw things, Conrad...bad things...the Visitors...did..."  
  
"Ahem..." the Visitor voiced his presence behind Ann-  
Marie. "Conrad, I'll see you later."  
  
"Jacob, meet my sister, Ann-Marie." The Visitor only nodded,  
while Ann-Marie wished the floor would envelope her.  
  
********************************************************  
  
His eyes had been so cold, that Visitor's. Ann-Marie was  
scared. She had no idea how long Jacob had stood there. "What did  
he hear?" she wondered.  
  
Ann-Marie tried to sleep, but sleep would not come. All  
night, she heard noises--cars, planes, chatter, footsteps, laughter,  
among other faint noises. The truth was that she was worried. No,  
sheer terror filled her.  
  
Jacob knew what Ann-Marie knew...  
  
"Maybe some warm milk might do me good."  
  
She got up, donning a robe as she went into the kitchen. As  
the milk boiled, she looked out a window. A few trick-or-treaters  
still walked the streets. She was closing the blinds when she heard  
a strange noise. Craning her neck upwards, she saw a shuttle about  
to land. Hair stood up on the back of her neck.  
  
She KNEW. She KNEW...  
  
They were after her...  
  
Rushing, she found her shoes and headed for the fire escape.  
Ann-Marie almost laughed when she realized that she never turned off  
the burner.  
  
Since they were coming in the front, the fire escape was her  
only means of escape. She could only hope...  
  
Her feet touched the ground, and she took off running, only  
to run right into a Visitor. "Hey there, girl," he greeted drunkenly.  
  
"Thank God." Removing herself from his grasp, she began to  
run.  
  
"Hey! Wait a minute!"  
  
His shouts attracted the attention of the Visitors stationed  
outside the shuttle. They saw her state of undress, and noticed her  
apparent panic, and chased her.  
  
Ann-Marie ran and ran and ran. Soon, she found herself near  
the Lafayette Cemetery. Did she dare?  
  
She had no choice. Hoping to lose them amid the intricate  
rows of above-ground tombs, Ann-Marie only wished a spirit or two  
would aid her. She heard the click of their boots on the  
sidewalks...she had to hide.  
  
Ann-Marie opened the door to a vault to trick the Visitors as  
she hid behind a nearby tomb.  
  
They took the bait, only to discover their prey was not  
inside the vault.  
  
"Search over there!"  
  
"You go that way!"  
  
"Find her!"  
  
Ann-Marie shut her eyes and prayed. It was a fruitless task  
as she knew she would die here, and that her body's final resting  
place would be in the very same vault whose door she herself had  
opened.  
  
A click of boots behind her. Ann-Marie never turned around.  
She knew it was Jacob.  
  
She KNEW...  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  



End file.
